Vlll 



(Lyencephala) is capable of vindication, the three other sub-classes, 

 Lissencephala, Gyrencephala, and Archencephala, grade so imper- 

 ceptibly into each other that their distinction as sab-classes cannot 

 be maintained. The proposed definition of the distinguishing 

 characters of the brain of Man ^Archencephala) from that of other 

 Mammals gave rise to a somewhat acute controversy, the echoes of 

 which reached beyond the realms of purely scientific literature. 

 On the other hand, the radical distinction between the two groups of 

 Ungulates, the odd-toed and the even-toed, first indicated by Cuvier, 

 when treating of the fossil forms, was thoroughly worked out by 

 Owen through every portion of their organisation, and remains as a 

 solid contribution to a rational system of classification. 



The chapter called " General Conclusions " at the end of the third 

 volume is devoted to a summary of his views on the principal con- 

 troverted biological questions of the day, especially in relation to the 

 teaching of Darwin, just then coming into great prominence. Al- 

 though from the peculiarly involved style of Owen's writing, especially 

 upon these subjects, it is sometimes difficult to define his real 

 opinions, ifc appears that before the publication of the ' Origin of 

 Species,' he had " been led to recognise species as exemplifying 

 the continuous operation of natural law, or secondary cause, and that 

 not only successively but progressively." Darwin's special doctrine 

 of " natural selection," however, he never appreciated, and his strong 

 opposition to it caused him, though quite erroneously, to be looked 

 npon by those outside the world of science as a supporter of the 

 old-fashioned and then more " orthodox " view of special creation. 

 His most distinct utterance upon this subject is contained in the 

 following paragraph : " So, being unable to acce'pt the volitional 

 hypothesis, or that of impulse from within, or the selective force 

 exerted by outward circumstances, I deem an innate tendency to 

 deviate from parental type, operating through periods of adequate 

 duration, to be the most probable nature, or way of operation, of the 

 secondary law, whereby species have been derived one from the 

 other." (Op. cit., vol. 3, p. 807.) 



His career as a lecturer did not entirely cease with his connexion 

 with the College of Surgeons, as, by permission of the authorities of 

 the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street, he gave several 

 courses on the fossil remains of animals, open to the public, in the 

 theatre of that institution, and he held in the years 1859, 1860, and 

 1861, in conjunction with his office at the British Museum, the 

 Fnllerian Professorship of Physiology in the Royal Institution. On 

 the revival of the annual lecture on Sir Robert Rede's foundation 

 in the University of Cambridge, in 1859, he was appointed to give 

 the first, and took for his subject the Classification of the Mammalia. 

 He also occasionally lectured at the Royal Institution on Friday 



